Do you ever get the feeling that Murphy is sitting around the corner just waiting to shove his law down your throat? That was my day. This week has been fab-u-lous and yesterday was no different. Clients are crawling out of the woodwork thanks to a few good people and my recent mention of my photo on Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin. My kiddo has slipped out of that snappy 3 year old potty mouth phase (at least for now). And to top it off, my husband not only made dinner, but he did the dishes after. Without being told. Really.
In a meager effort to do my part, I grabbed the vacuum – it’s one of those bagless kinds – and started it up. Funny smell. Hmm. Keep going. Husband reminds me to empty the canister – check. Take the canister off and kitty litter showers the floor. @#$#. I tipped the little bugger over to get the rest of whatever was there out and that’s when I see … it. The biggest dust bunny I’ve ever seen. There’s carpet gnarled amongst cat hair and the string my kid was playing with. It took me over half an hour to cut it all out and really clean those little brushes.
Here’s the important part. If you don’t take care of things before they’re broken you’re going to be spending your evening on the floor fighting the dust bunnies.
Bet you think I’m talking about failure huh? Even though the statistics show that a lot of businesses fail in their first year, what you really need to watch out for is SUCCESS. With the 1 year anniversary of Monday Morning VA coming up in a few short days, I know all about the explosion that can happen when you’re not looking.
So here’s what you can learn from my stint with the vacuum and from some of the things I did wrong in my own business.
1. Be prepared. Whether it’s success or failure you need to be prepared. You can do this by actually writing some kind of business plan and having a plan B for both scenarios.
In fact, if you are only going to do one of those, prepare more for the success. No, I’m not talking about the fru-fru Secret type stuff.
Imagine my surprise when I thought it would take 2 – 3 months to get my first client and it only took a week and a half. My contracts weren’t really finalized, I wasn’t super happy with the way my website looked or my business ‘best practices’. The more successful I became, the worse it got. Yeah, it’s a horrible problem to have but it can r-u-i-n you. If your business is a flop you just dust yourself off and try again. If your business is a success and YOU flop, no one will ever trust you again no matter what you do. So be a good scout and be prepared.
2. Clean your vacuum. Or, look two steps ahead. If I would have been thinking, I would have been cleaning out that little sucker a couple times of year to keep it running smoothly. Don’t turn your head away from your business just because it’s doing well. Your business is fluid – at least it should be – and it’s always evolving.
Which brings me to something I did right.
1. I failed fast and ditched things that weren’t working. In fact, my original niche was supposed to focus on something that I used to do – direct sales. It’s pretty interesting to note that I have not had one direct sales client. Ever. I crossed that off the list within days of opening my business.
2. I keep my finger on the pulse of entrepreneurs. That helped me evolve my business and reinvent things. Sometimes what didn’t work two months ago works well now (like our new packages. We used to offer these 6 months ago and they flopped).
Do you need some tips on how to fend off the worries of success? Need ideas on how to create systems? Write ‘em down.
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